The Jiajing Emperor had eight sons, but only the third son Yu Wang (Prince Yu) and the fourth son Jing Wang (Prince Jing) survived. Yu Wang was merely twenty-five days older than Jing Wang, and both were twenty-three years old this year.
Yu Wang's birth mother, Consort Du Kang, fell out of favor early on, despised by the Jiajing Emperor, and died young. On her deathbed, Yu Wang pleaded to see his mother one last time, but the Jiajing Emperor refused. Her funeral was shabby, utterly unbefitting the status of an imperial prince's birth mother.
Jing Wang, however, was different. His birth mother, Lu Jingfei, was one of the favored consorts. From the current perspective, Lu Jingfei could be considered the ultimate victor in the harem struggles of the Jiajing reign. All that remained was for her son to be crowned crown prince and ascend the throne, and for her to be named empress dowager, thus cementing her position as the champion of the harem intrigues.
In the tenth year of Jiajing, a decade after the emperor's ascension, he still had no sons. Thus, he initiated an Imperial Concubine Selection. To secure the imperial lineage, this selection was unprecedentedly large, extending beyond the capital region to Jiangnan. In the end, nine women, including the Fang, Lu, and Du clans, were chosen and enfeoffed as the Nine Concubines.
Initially, Consort Du enjoyed the most prominence. After two consecutive crown princes died in infancy, her son, the third prince Yu Wang, was the first to survive to adulthood. She was also the first among the concubines to be promoted to consort, enfeoffed as Consort Du Kang, and for a time, she basked in unparalleled glory.
Just twenty-five days later, Concubine Lu gave birth to the fourth prince, Jing Wang. However, because Yu Wang's earlier birth by twenty-five days had captured all the celebratory attention and favor, Concubine Lu remained stagnant in her rank, feeling deeply desolate.
Consort Du Kang had a straightforward personality. After giving birth, she often advised the Jiajing Emperor against taking elixirs refined with the blood of virgins, which led to his disdain and her subsequent fall from favor.
Concubine Lu seized the opportunity to rise, catering to the Jiajing Emperor's whims. After she gave birth to Jing Wang, the emperor promoted her rank, enfeoffing her as Lu Jingfei.
Soon after, Empress Zhang angered the volatile Jiajing Emperor and became the second empress to be deposed. With the harem left without a mistress, Lu Jingfei was ecstatic, believing that with the emperor's favor and having borne Jing Wang, she would undoubtedly be named the next empress.
For a time, Lu Jingfei was widely expected to become empress.
However, breaking all conventions, the Jiajing Emperor chose Concubine Fang—who had entered the palace in the same Imperial Concubine Selection of the tenth year of Jiajing and had never borne children—to be the new empress, known as Empress Fang.
Lu Jingfei was so enraged her face contorted, yet she forced a smile and knelt in homage to Empress Fang. But she could not accept that the empress title she had nearly grasped was snatched away by the sudden rise of the Fang clan. She planted spies around Empress Fang, waiting for an opportunity to bring her down—after all, the Jiajing reign had already seen two empresses deposed; removing a third should not be too difficult.
The opportunity came with the Renyin Palace Incident. When the palace maid Yang Jinying failed in her attempt to strangle the Jiajing Emperor, Empress Fang, under the pretext of purging the palace, rigorously interrogated the maids. Through Confession Under Torture, she seized the chance to execute the emperor's favored consorts, Consort Cao Duan and Consort Wang Ning, on charges of failing to report the plot.
Lu Jingfei's spies near Empress Fang informed her of this, but she bided her time. After using Empress Fang's hand to eliminate Consort Cao Duan and Consort Wang Ning, she waited a full five years before finding an opportunity to advise the Jiajing Emperor, accusing Empress Fang of abusing power for personal gain, falsely executing the two favored consorts, and deceiving the emperor.
The Jiajing Emperor, inherently suspicious, was enraged upon seeing Lu Jingfei's witnesses and evidence. However, as a ruler, he could not publicly admit to being deceived and manipulated by his empress, as it would become a royal scandal. Thus, the Jiajing Emperor ordered someone to set fire to the Kunning Palace. When the blaze broke out, he forbade anyone from entering to rescue her. Not even the palace maids died, yet the empress of a nation was burned to death inside the Kunning Palace.
Thus, all three empresses of the Jiajing Emperor met tragic ends: two were deposed, and one was burned alive.Lu Jingfei believed her time to ascend as empress had finally arrived, but the suspicious Jiajing Emperor, haunted by past shadows, henceforth never appointed another empress. Instead, he tasked Lu Jingfei with managing the imperial harem.
Lu Jingfei served "diligently" in the harem. During this period, four princes were born in succession, yet all died young. Consort Du Kang, confined to the cold palace, also succumbed to depression and passed away. The third prince, Yu Wang, grew up with a temperament as stubborn and forthright as his mother’s, frequently provoking the emperor’s wrath.
Despite knowing his father’s disdain for Consort Du Kang, Yu Wang stubbornly knelt in the Western Garden, pleading desperately to see his mother one last time in the harem. Unsurprisingly, the enraged Jiajing Emperor refused, harshly rebuked Yu Wang, and forbade him from ever approaching the Western Garden again.
Thus, Yu Wang was so neglected that he did not even see the Jiajing Emperor on his own wedding day. In contrast, Jing Wang, whose mother Lu Jingfei managed the harem and who knew how to curry favor with his father, emulated the emperor by wearing a Taoist Robe adorned with the Eight Trigrams and a bamboo crown. This endeared him to the Jiajing Emperor, granting him free access to the Forbidden City.
Meanwhile, Yu Wang had no opportunity to set foot in the Forbidden City except during festivals and ancestral rites, when he was required to pay respects at the Fengxian Hall.
The Jiajing Emperor was now fifty-three years old and, after all, had two adult sons. By convention, he should have long ago designated a crown prince to secure the imperial succession.
According to the Ming dynasty’s inheritance laws, the son of the empress took precedence; if there was no such heir, the eldest son was to be chosen. Although Yu Wang was only twenty-five days older than Jing Wang, by the law of succession, even an hour’s seniority would grant Yu Wang the status of the elder and the natural right to inherit.
However, the Jiajing Emperor disliked Yu Wang’s stubborn and unyielding nature, favoring instead the fourth prince, Jing Wang.
Over the succession, the court split into two factions. Officials led by Yan Song complied with the emperor’s wishes, advocating for Jing Wang. Those led by Xu Jie adhered to the ancestral inheritance laws, recognizing only Yu Wang as the legitimate elder heir. The two factions engaged in a protracted and contentious struggle.
Weary of the disputes, the Jiajing Emperor, citing the premature deaths of two previously appointed crown princes and a Taoist’s warning that "two dragons must not meet"—fearing that such an encounter would inevitably lead to one’s death, regardless of which one—decided against appointing a crown prince altogether.
Under Ming rules of enfeoffment, all adult princes except the crown prince were required to leave the capital for their designated fiefs. Yet, with the crown prince position left vacant, Jing Wang, now twenty-three and married for seven years, still lingered in the capital. Leveraging his father’s favor and his mother Lu Jingfei’s control over the harem, he moved freely within the Forbidden City.
Though Lu Jingfei had lost hope of becoming empress, she effectively ruled as an uncrowned queen, with the harem deferring to her and treating Jing Wang as the future heir.
Lu Jingfei paid no heed to the disfavored Yu Wang, convinced that the crown prince would be her son, Jing Wang.
Yet, for all his virtues, Jing Wang had one critical flaw—after seven years of marriage, he still had no children.
Although Yu Wang’s two sons and two daughters had all died young, he had at least fathered children, with his eldest son surviving until the age of four.
In contrast, neither Jing Wang’s princess consort nor his concubines had proven fertile—they either failed to conceive or suffered miscarriages and stillbirths, without a single live birth to show.
If Jing Wang remained childless, the emperor might yield to pressure from Xu Jie and other ministers, changing his mind and designating Yu Wang as crown prince.
Lu Jingfei fretted endlessly. The women in Jing Wang’s household had proven useless over seven years, failing to produce even a whiff of an heir. She contemplated selecting a few from the forty-eight chosen court ladies to send to Jing Wang’s residence, hoping they might bear him an heir.Lu Jingfei was reviewing the roster of selected court ladies when Jing Wang eagerly entered the palace to ask his mother for new consorts. He was well aware that his only shortcoming was the lack of an heir, and he was anxious to produce children.
The court ladies' height, weight, measurements, and even intimate physical details from their examinations were recorded in the roster. Jing Wang’s gaze involuntarily drifted toward the pages.
Lu Jingfei snapped the booklet shut. "What are you looking at? Have you no manners? Before these women are sent to your estate, they are nominally your father’s consorts."
Jing Wang immediately averted his eyes, adopting a posture of humility. "It’s not that I’m lustful, Mother. I’m merely eager to provide you with a royal grandson. The women in my estate are all barren hens."
Lu Jingfei’s delicate eyebrows arched sharply. "Your principal wife and concubines were all chosen by me. Are you suggesting I have poor judgment?"
Terrified, Jing Wang dropped to his knees. "I didn’t mean that! I was wrong. Please punish me, Mother."
Jing Wang was slick and opportunistic, skilled at pleasing both his father and mother. He knelt quickly, unlike his third brother Yu Wang, who was stubborn enough to openly defy their father.
As a mother who relied on her son for status, Lu Jingfei would never truly punish her beloved child. "Get up," she said. "Consider this a warning: be more discreet in public from now on. Don’t let others exploit minor flaws to trip you up."
"I understand, Mother." Jing Wang rose with a grin and began massaging Lu Jingfei’s shoulders. "How could these ordinary women compare to your unparalleled elegance? I’ll obey your every decision. Whomever you choose will be fine by me."
Pleased by her son’s filial obedience, Lu Jingfei softened. "There’s no need to rush. Royal heirs have always been difficult to secure. You’re twenty-three now—your father was twenty-six when he had his first son, and that child still died young. Your third brother may have produced two sons and two daughters first, but in the end, he lost them all. What good is bearing children if none survive? Don’t compete over who has the first son—only those who live to adulthood matter."
As a veteran who had successively defeated favored consorts and even an empress, Lu Jingfei understood the harsh realities of palace life. She knew that those who laughed last laughed best. Though concerned about the lineage, she remained steady. If the last batch of women failed to produce heirs, this new selection would be sent. If they too proved infertile, there would always be more. The entire empire belonged to the royal family—there would never be a shortage of women to bear its descendants.
Jing Wang stared at the closed roster, wishing he had X-ray vision to see the court ladies’ names and intimate details.
To secure the succession and maintain a good reputation among officials, he had no choice but to conceal his true nature. In public, he played the part of a dignified prince, sleeping only with women chosen by his mother and never stepping out of line.
But all the women his mother selected had similar "fortunate" features—broad faces, ample bosoms, and wide hips—as if cast from the same mold. If they wore identical clothing, he’d struggle to tell them apart.
The consequence was that after seven years of marriage and over a dozen consorts, it felt as though he had slept with the same woman repeatedly. There was no distinction, no novelty.
Jing Wang had reached his limit. Approaching the women in his estate felt like fulfilling a duty—a mechanical effort to produce heirs and serve the royal lineage. Over time, he even struggled to perform.
Craving variety, he tentatively asked Lu Jingfei, "Surely we won’t keep all forty-eight court ladies? With so many dazzling options, how does Mother plan to narrow them down?"Consort Lu Jing declared, "I have arranged a chrysanthemum banquet on Qionghua Island, inviting all forty-eight court ladies to test their talents and wit. Those who are foolish or appear unfit for bearing children—"
Prince Jing interjected, "Will be eliminated. A brilliant strategy, Mother."
Consort Lu Jing smirked coldly. "No, these very ladies will instead be selected and sent to Prince Yu's residence as concubines. As the one managing the imperial harem, it is my duty to care for all imperial sons' heirs. Moreover, Prince Yu, being the eldest brother, deserves five ladies for every four given to you. Rest assured, I shall reserve the finest for you."
Doubtless more of those broad-faced, buxom, wide-hipped types. Prince Jing stored this away, deciding to find an excuse to visit Qionghua Island early the day after tomorrow. He would secretly observe the court ladies—if any caught his eye, he would beg his mother to grant them to him for diversion. She had always doted on him; such a trivial matter would be effortlessly arranged.
Author's Note:
Prince Jing: No recursive traps allowed!
Today's chapter wraps up a palace intrigue arc Zhou believes the harem struggles of the Jiajing era were the most brutal—a game of wolves and sheep where the emperor himself was harsh, ungrateful, and cold-blooded. Women fought relentlessly, yet there were no true victors, only desolation.
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